Getting the Most Out of Getting Rejected

Best-selling author Marisha Pessl on the gift of creative ammunition.

Getty

AuthorCreated with Sketch.

By Marisha Pessl

Mar 11, 2015

In college I was always writing short stories and sending query letters asking people to read my work, and I was rejected time and time again. There was one agent named Meredith Bernstein, who I contacted when I was 16 or 17. I wrote this heavily Twin Peaks influenced very long book, and I sent her this doorstopper of a book—these five cinder blocks arrived on her desk. She wrote me back and said, "I'm not taking you on as a client but you definitely have a talent and you have to keep going." I kept that letter with me for a long time. That meant everything.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

On the converse side, I've always welcomed anti-sponsorship too, where people tell you you're not good enough. When I was at Barnard, I applied for the only fiction writing class I've ever tried to take, which was taught by this British writer. He said, "Your writing is not good enough, you can't get into this class."

To be rejected over something I loved so much was really difficult. So I met with him personally to ask him to give me another chance. Afterward I went home and spent a week writing a short story based on our interaction, but it must have made him angry, because after I turned it in he said, "Absolutely not, you totally missed the point." Once I got over the initial sting, it was like he awakened a dragon. Not only did I no longer want to be in his class, I decided this was going to be my career and I was going to be successful. He created a phoenix.